Questions, answered straight.

Somewhere to ask what a Bangalore neighbourhood is actually like and get an answer from someone who lives there. Underneath each area that people ask about sits a researched report, eleven chapters with the source under every figure, covering the half of the question that has numbers: the real walk to the metro, the water on your street, safety after dark, noise, flooding, what it costs.

Plenty of people do, and the answers there are often very good. The trouble is that a feed forgets. An answer about which Bellandur street goes under first is excellent for a day, then scrolls away, and three months later somebody asks it again. Here a question belongs to the area rather than to a date, so it is still there when the next person looks that area up, with the measured half, rent, the metro walk, the water, sitting in the same place with a source under each figure. We are far smaller than Reddit and much newer. What we have instead is that nothing gets buried.

No, and that is deliberate. We do not hold listings and we are not trying to. Locara is the thing you read before you go looking, so that when you do open a listings site you already know which areas are worth your time and which to skip.

Post your question to the area it is about, from the feed, and people who live there answer it. Areas people ask about get a full researched report, linked from every question in them.

Not to read. Every area report, every tool and every question is open. You need one only to post, because an answer has to be able to reach the person who asked. It is one tap with Google, and no password.

Eleven chapters on one locality: safety, getting around, daily life, air and noise and monsoon, water and power and internet, offices and schools and hospitals, who lives there, culture, what it costs, what residents say, and how it changes through the year.

The four tools answer the narrow questions the report does not: what rent you can afford, two areas side by side, where to live given a commute, and what a month costs in a given locality. No sign-up on any of them.

The reports cover what can be measured. The community covers what cannot: whether the 6pm crawl is really as bad as people say, which stretch goes under first in the monsoon, where you actually buy vegetables. You ask about an area, and people who live there answer.

People who live, lived, or work in the area, saying which of those they are and since when. It is self-reported and we do not verify it, which is why it is shown next to the answer rather than as a badge: it is context for you to weigh, not a check mark from us.

Because a new area with nothing in it gives nobody a reason to start. We post the opening questions ourselves, under Locara asks, labelled so it can never be mistaken for a neighbour. We never write an answer and sign it as a resident.

No, and we would rather you did not. You pick a name others see, and most people pick a pen name, because you are going to be saying honest things about your own street. Your email stays private either way.

Then it sits there honestly unanswered rather than being filled in by us. We would rather show you a question with no answer than an answer nobody lived.

From official and civic sources, transport and mapping data, on-the-ground readings, and what residents actually say in enough places to count. Every figure carries its source, so you can check it rather than take our word.

No. If we do not have it, the report says we do not have it. That is the single rule the whole product rests on, and a plausible-sounding invented figure would be worse than an empty row.

Neighbourhood research is refreshed as things change on the ground, and each reading is dated. We would rather update a figure carefully than leave a confident wrong one up.

Yes. Every area report, every tool, and asking as much as you like. Nothing is behind a card.

Right now we do not, and we are not pretending otherwise. Locara is two people researching a city properly because nobody else has. If it earns its keep later it will be from something clearly labelled, never from selling you or your data.

Bangalore, and within it the 8 areas people are asking about right now. We publish a report for an area once people start asking about it, rather than importing a city guide and calling it coverage.

Ask a question about it. That is not a brush-off, it is the actual queue: an area people are asking about is the next one we research. You can also request one on the contact page if you would rather not post.

We genuinely want it. If a figure looks off or something is broken, send it from our contact page, it reaches us directly, no need to compose an email.

Yes, we would love to hear from you. Reach us at support@thelocara.com or +91-9129916977.